Fish In A Tree

In reading, we were assigned to read books about social issues. My reading group picked a book called Fish In A Tree by Linda Mullaly Hunt. My class talked about reading and thought of some books that are about social issues. One of the books mentioned was Fish In A Tree and somebody recommended it to my group so we decided to read it.

The main character in the book is a girl named Ally. She has dyslexia, something that makes it hard for humans to read. She also can’t pay attention to people and loses focus. Ally is afraid to ask for help and doesn’t want anybody to find out that she has a problem reading. To hide this Ally creates distractions and gets in trouble instead of showing her class that she can’t read. Words look like dancing ants to her. Because of the distractions, Ally’s teacher left the school. The effect causes people to bully her and say “The world gets dumber every time Ally Nickerson speaks” says a mean kid named Shay. People even make fun of Ally because her mother is a waitress. Later on in the story, Ally’s new teacher, Mrs. Daniels is nicer and tries to find out why Ally is avoiding reading and writing. One really important moment in the book is when Ally has a private conversation with Mr. Daniels. Mr. Daniels says that Ally is is big part in the class and the class would be different without her. Mr. Daniels is different than Ally’s other teachers. Ally’s other teachers stand up and tell Ally what is wrong with her or as Ally likes to call it, her staring at her teachers’ stomaches. What’s different with Mr. Daniels is that he kneel down and Ally looks in his eyes. With this conversation, they form a relationship. Ally thought, “But now, on top of all those wishes that I carry around, I have one more. I want to impress Mr. Daniels. With every tiny little piece of myself, I just want him to like me.” Ally knows that Mr. Daniels will be a different teacher than all her other ones. And so do I. I think that she will tell Mr. Daniels that it is hard for her to read.I also think that Mr. Daniels will try to help Ally by teaching her to read better and by trying to stop everybody from bullying her.